How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"Aamons, Mona, […]; engaged to P. Castle, 193; essential naïveté, 67-71, 80, 95 f, 116 n., 209, 274 n., 400-406, 566 n., 679; lives with Bokonon, […]." (55.2)
One person's life filtered into the index of a book. Kind of makes you think…. We aren't sure about what, but thinking is probably going to happen.
Quote #8
"When France claimed San Lorenzo in 1682," wrote Castle, "no Spaniards complained. When Denmark claimed San Lorenzo in 1699, no Frenchmen complained. When the Dutch claimed San Lorenzo in 1704, no Danes complained." (57.3)
San Lorenzo goes postcolonial on us. Once again, Cat's Cradle hammers home the point that national boundaries are perhaps a little less solid than we imagine them to be. (And maybe that's a good thing.)
Quote #9
San Lorenzo conscripted a hundred men to fight on the side of democracy. These hundred men were put on a ship bound for the United States, where they were to be armed and trained. The ship was sunk by a German submarine right outside of Bolivar harbor. (68.3-4)
Life, death, and war. Ah, the age-old tale. War and Peace would have been considerably shorter had Vonnegut gotten his hands on the manuscript.